My writing workshop has
doubled in length from two hours to four and now includes a major component of
critical thinking. This was supposed to
be covered by a philosophy professor who had to drop out at the last moment.
So what do I hope my
students learn in the brief time we have together?
Ask any teacher and
she will tell you students lack critical thinking skills. With writing, these skills are the most under-utilized
in our students’ lives. More
importantly, society does not encourage deep reflection, thinking of a critical
nature, or reading in a variety of genres and texts. Students reflect what society values in
education. Right now, the ability to use
technology and make money seem to be top priorities, not becoming a better
person or coming to understand the human condition, much less the global
concerns for environment and life. It is
a shallow and superficial age.
Critical thinking
involves a headache. That’s my
experience. It actually hurts to think that hard, but to do less
is self-limiting and narcissistic. Like
working out one’s muscles, the pain is good.
It should, and does, keep us running.
Education is a pursuit; we are chasing intelligence, the ability to
think for ourselves and see through the bullshit of our politicians and their
corporate minders. I’d like to say our
fundamental humanistic beliefs have never been more devalued, but such
devaluation and brutality have been pretty consistent throughout human
history. What has changed is our
distraction level. We are deep into our
gadgets and digital domains and meanwhile, the world keeps moving on and we are
only vaguely aware of the shifting ground beneath our feet.
How does one think
critically? Well, first start by surrendering,
as much as possible, our biases and then study the issue as objectively as
possible. It is true that subjectivity
is human nature and no one can mount a truly objective evaluation, but we can
try. One way is to read the
opposition. One should always read both
sides of the issue. Who stands to
benefit? Who reaps financial rewards (“follow
the money”)?
I like visual tools
such as charts or a white board. Make a
list of possible actions, like lowering emission standards on the American car
industry, something that has been done in recent years. Across from the list of actions, make a list
of the consequences. So lowering
emission standards will increase the cost of the vehicle for consumers thereby
affecting the economy. Batteries and alternative
fuels may raise the cost of maintaining a car.
Make a third column of overall benefits to the world and its
people. Ultimately, to reduce emissions
means more expensive car costs, but it pays off in environmental benefits like
controlling global warming and reducing air pollution. When the good outweighs the negative, we have
an answer.
There is also the old
standby, the pros and cons list. However,
we must be careful because in this age, the truth is often not the truth, and
there are a lot of red herrings out there.
Banning people from certain countries of the world from immigrating to
the U.S. does not protect us from terrorists.
It is also not the American way of doing things. So to make a pros and cons list about
immigration that places keeping out terrorists in the pro side is a fallacy of
sorts.
What we find with
critical thinking is that in the end, after all the analysis, there may not be
a clear answer. However it is in the
rumination about issues that gives strength to such thinking. We have higher order thinking skills and that
sets us apart from animals. Mulling over
choices, ways of behaving, formations of laws, positions on legislation and
elected officials, these are the requirements of a working human brain. We simply must
do this. Otherwise, to fail to think
is to abdicate our intellect and surrender our free thinking to become automatons.
We are also wary of
this because of what we have seen on television: screaming heads going at each other night
after night. The point of an argument is
not to scream. Something is lost when we
attack the opposition with names and personal affronts. We debate the issues, and we may never
agree. That is the American way: everyone has a right to an informed opinion,
but we may not reach a consensus on every given issue. We reserve the right to agree to disagree as
the cliché goes.
To think critically
means to examine every line of thought on a particular issue in our
society. We examine each premise and
consequence and caveat and come to our own conclusions. It is not wrong to question things; I am
often surprised at how often other teachers and administrators think this
way. They are afraid of the questions,
of being questioned. Education and a
developing intellect thrive on questions.
Authority is no protection against questioning, and to question our laws
and institutions and those in authority will not destroy them. To know why we believe the way we do makes
our beliefs and self-confidence stronger.
Like vitamins, critical thinking is good for us. Political and sociological arguments are
necessary in democracy. The ancient
Greeks were adamant that a citizen participate
in democracy, otherwise the whole enterprise falters.
So critical thinking
boils down to observation, interpretation, analysis, inference, evaluation,
explanation, and meta-cognition (thinking about your thinking!). And as soon as one works through this
checklist, it is lather, rinse, repeat.
We are always coming to new possibilities, new information, more
enlightening data. We must always leave
room to reconsider. The human intellect
is always growing—a few poets like William Blake said it was a tree growing in
our brains, like a burgeoning cancer.
Intellect is not cancerous unless it is used for destruction of
life. There is also moral and ethical
thinking. These are not separate
categories—often to think critically involves thinking morally and ethically.
Descartes said, in
rough translation, “I think, therefore I am.”
It is a popular quote, but the root of it is the negative: if I do not think, if I do not seize the
opportunity to think, I cease to be a human being. Brains come with responsibilities. That is what it means to be human and it has
been so from the start. What tree did
Adam and Eve eat from in the Garden of Eden?
The tree of knowledge. What
knowledge did they gain from this fruit?
They were alive, but would someday die.
They were naked and needed clothes because nakedness was shameful and
others could use that nakedness to encroach on one’s ability to walk through
life unmolested or avoid assault. As
some theologians have said, Adam and Eve, by eating the fruit, came to know
some of what God knew. We learned we
could create life, we could end life, we could love others, we could destroy
others.
In the end, it is not
a stretch to teach writing with critical thinking because they are necessary to
each other. If one doesn’t think, one
cannot write, or write well, for that matter.
Consider the world, its people, its spirituality, its gravity and
breath. Only when we listen and consider
can we find the through-line of thought leading to right action. Only then can we be truly engaged in the daily
wonder of life and creation.